Jananas

As blogged about before, Jason made me a homemade yarn swift. However, a swift without a ball winder is only really half the battle. So well you no longer have to fight the yarn while winding it, you still have to wind the actual ball by hand. This week I solved that little problem by picking up a ball winder from the Knit Cafe here in Toronto. This evening while I was hard at work making pickled grapes and homemade salsa, the boys (Jason and Badur) set about playing with the swift and ball winder.

Here’s Jason putting some lovely rainbow coloured Malabrigo in their silky merino. I’m not sure what I want to make out of this, but its enough for a pair of mittens or a hat or something small.

Here’s Jason attaching the ball winder to the blanket box in my kitchen. (Yes, I have a couch and a blanket box where I should have a kitchen table. We like hanging out!).

Here’s Jason attaching the ball winder to the other end of the blanket box in order to reduce yarn tangles and snags.

Once the Malabrigo was wound, Jason and Badur moved onto some lovely dove gray cotton that I have stashed away for a rainy day. Badur’s looking a little sad because they were having trouble getting the hang of winding balls of yarn. Here’s the close up of the yarn…

See, when you wind balls of yarn you’re supposed to get lovely little flat ‘cakes’ of yarn. Not weird conical shapes… Oops. Thankfully they got better with practice.

I told you they got better with practice, with the left being their first ball and the right being their fourth. Jason really enjoyed winding yarn (hey, I was surprised too!). He even made mentioned that I might just find that he’s wound all my yarn for me while he’s been at home and bored. Not only am I dating a man who indulges my love of all things yarn by making me my very own swift for my birthday, I am also dating a man who will wind my yarn for me. Swoon!

More from jananas

• Antique Spinning Wheel & Yarn Winder
• Long Tail Cast On Without Wasting Yarn
• Learning How to Dye Yarn